El Assaad Family

El-Assaad or Al As'ad (Arabic: الأسعد) is an Arab feudal political family/clan originally from Najd and a main branch of the Anizah tribe. Unrelated to Syrian or Palestinian Al-Assads, El-Assaad dynasty that ruled most of South Lebanon for three centuries and whose lineage defended fellow denizens of history's Jabal Amel (Mount Amel) principality – today southern Lebanon – for 36 generations, Balqa in Jordan, Nablus in Palestine, and Homs in Syria governed by Ottoman rule between generations throughout the Arab caliphate by Sheikh al Mashayekh (Chief of Chiefs) Nasif Al-Nassar ibn Al-Waeli, Ottoman conquest under Shbib Pasha El Assaad, Ali Bek El Assaad ruler of Belad Bechara (Part of Jabal Amel), Ali Nassrat Bek. Advisor of the Court and a Superior in the Ministry of Foreign affairs in the Ottoman Empire, Moustafa Nassar Bek El Assaad Supreme Court President of Lebanon and colonial French administration by Hassib Bek—also supreme court Judge and grand speaker at halls across the Levant. El-Assaads are considered now "Bakaweit" (title of nobility plural of "Bek" granted to a few wealthy families in Lebanon in the early eighteenth century), and are considered princes or heirs to the family's dynasty to some.

The patriarchy originated when the Najdi traveling Bedouin Ali Al Saghir (Saghir, the Young).They were proclaimed as El Assaad (the Most Rejoiceful) by their adopting people of Jabal Amel after liberating Sidon & Tyre, its ancient and Biblical capitals, from Byzantine tyrants (wherefrom the term originated). Ali's tribe, the Anazzah (of Bani Wael) also the tribe of Al-Saud royalty, travelled northwest in search of arable farmland.

During the El-Assaad era, they, as provincial governors by consent, were given Khuwwa (brotherly voluntary crop-sharing) by local clans to finance protecting their co-operative trade from outside occupation, peacefully upholding the autonomy of a laborious few in the midst of one massive imperial taxation hegemony after another. This continued until contemporary domestic ideological belligerence, foreign interferences, and emergence of corruption led to rapid depredation of the El-Assaads’ ability to maintain control.